JPH06100851B2 - Copier - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to copiers, and more particularly to feeding uncopied sheets from a copy sheet tray to a photoreceptor to receive a first image on one side thereof. The formed single-sided copy sheet is sent to a double-sided copy buffer tray, and the sheet is re-fed from the tray to the photosensitive member to receive the second image on the other side. Regarding the machine. Such copiers are also capable of single sided copying.

2. Description of the Related Art British Patent No. 2,033,878 describes a copying machine capable of single-sided or double-sided copying.
It has a photoreceptor, two copy sheet trays, and a double-sided copy buffer tray. A top sheet feeder is provided for the copy sheet tray and a bottom sheet feeder is provided for the duplex copy buffer tray. The one-sided copy sheet that receives the image on one side of the photoreceptor is fed to the double-sided copy buffer tray and re-fed to the photoreceptor to receive the second image on the other side. In the embodiment shown in this patent, the double-sided copy buffer tray has an auxiliary bottom or top support that allows additional sheets to be fed below the sheets already in the buffer tray. It has a feature that it can be sent and a recovery operation can be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the present invention, the buffer tray is arranged such that a single-sided copy sheet is inserted into the tray, leading edge first, and trailing edge first, in the same direction as the sheet leaves the photoreceptor. And the sheet is re-fed to the photoconductor, and a folding path is provided between the buffer tray and the photoconductor, so that the sheet is inverted once between the buffer tray and the photoconductor. It is characterized in that With this configuration,
The shape can be remarkably reduced, the sheet re-fed to the photoconductor can be naturally inverted, and it is not necessary to provide a special inversion mechanism.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a double-sided copy buffer tray is located under the photoreceptor and a single-sided copy sheet is conveyed along a double-folded return path between the photoreceptor and the buffer tray, which results in the sheet. Invert twice naturally. Also, if the copy sheet tray is placed under the photoconductor,
A vertically oriented arrangement is obtained, thus reducing the width of the copier. In a particularly advantageous arrangement, the copy sheet tray is located below the duplex copy buffer tray, which itself is also located below the photoreceptor.

In another aspect, the copier of the present invention is capable of single-sided and double-sided copying, in which the copy sheet tray and double-sided copy buffer tray are located below the photoreceptor and one above the other. The sheet path from the trays to the photoconductor is folded back,
This is characterized in that the sheet is inverted once between the buffer tray and the photoreceptor, the sheet is fed from the tray in the same direction and passed through the photoreceptor in the opposite direction, and Sheet return means for sending a single-sided copy sheet receiving an image on one side of the photoreceptor to a buffer tray and re-feeding the photoreceptor to receive a second image on the other side of the sheet. A single-sided copy sheet is fed from the photoreceptor to a buffer tray along a double folding path whereby the sheet is naturally inverted twice and in the same direction as the sheet passed through the photoreceptor. It is characterized by entering.

The paths for the sheets from the copy sheet tray and the duplex copy buffer tray have a common portion adjacent the photoreceptor.

In another embodiment of the invention, a second copy sheet tray is provided and the second copy sheet tray and duplex copy buffer tray have a common sheet feeder. These trays are relatively movable so that one is operatively associated with the common sheet feeder at a time so that sheet feed from one of the copy sheet trays can be selected. And means for controlling the trays to feed sheets from the first copy sheet tray during duplex copying and to operatively couple the duplex copy buffer tray with the common sheet feeder. It is provided. The second copy sheet tray has a lowered operating position in which the tray is within the duplex copy buffer tray and is in communication with a sheet feeder, and the tray is spaced above the duplex copy buffer tray. And the buffer tray is mounted for movement between a raised non-actuated position operatively associated with the sheet feeder and the second copy sheet tray holds the raised non-actuated position during duplex copying. In operating position.

In the above embodiment, the first copy sheet tray is
It is moveable between an elevated operating position that engages the feeder and a lowered non-actuated position that disengages from the feeder. Engagement of each of the first and second copy sheet trays with its associated feeder is prohibited unless the other of the trays disengages its feeder.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

EXAMPLE First, referring to FIG. 1, the figure shows a xerographic copying machine 1 to which the present invention is applied. In addition to being suitable for making a single-sided copy. As will be described in greater detail below, the illustrated copier preferably performs post collation using a semi-automatic document handling device 2 and collects the copies in a sorter 3 as shown in FIG. 2, or By using the automatic recirculation type document handling device 4 for pre-collating, and by using the finishing device 5 as shown in FIG. 3, it can be used to make collated double-sided copy. Although collation is not performed in the embodiment shown in FIG.
Instead of the output device shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 3, it is also possible to use an offset type receiving tray or a single-sided copy receiving tray 6 as shown in FIG.

The reproduction apparatus 1 has a photosensitive drum 11 mounted so as to rotate in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1, which drum carries out a series of xerographic processing on the photoconductive image surface of the drum. The stations, that is, the charging station 12, the image forming station 13, the developing station 14, the transfer station 15, and the cleaning station 16 are sequentially passed.

The charging station 12 is equipped with a corotron for giving a uniform electrostatic charge on the photoconductor. The document to be copied is placed on the platen 23 and scanned by the moving optical scanning device, which causes the imaging station.
At 13, a streaming light image is created on the drum. The photoimage selectively discharges the photoconductor of the drum into the shape of the image, thereby creating an electrostatic latent image of the object or document on the surface of the drum. At development station 14, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a visible image by contacting toner particles and depositing the particles on the charged areas of the photoreceptor. The cut sheet of paper is fed to the transfer station 15 in a synchronous relationship with the image on the drum surface, and the developed image is transferred to the copy sheet at the transfer station 15. At the transfer station, the transfer corotron 17 provides an electric field to help transfer the toner particles to the sheet. Then, the copy sheet is peeled off from the drum 11. This delamination is aided by the electric field provided by the AC detac corotron 18. The copy sheet bearing the developed image is then conveyed by the conveyor belt device 19 to the fixing station 20.

After transfer of the developed image from the drum, some toner particles typically remain on the drum and are removed at cleaning station 16. After cleaning, the electrostatic charges remaining on the drum are removed by the AC erase corotron 21. The photoreceptor is then ready to be recharged by the charging corotron 12 as the first step in the next copying cycle.

The optical image at the imaging station 13 is formed by the optical device 22. Platen the documents (not shown) to be copied
It is placed on a lamp 23 and illuminated by a lamp 24 mounted on a scanning carriage which supports a mirror 26. The mirror 26 is a full-speed scanning mirror of a full / half-speed scanning device. Full speed mirror 26,
An image of one strip of the document to be copied is reflected onto a half-speed scanning mirror 27. The image above is with a lens 28 and a fixed mirror
It is deflected by 29 and focused on the drum 11.
In operation, the full speed mirror 26 and lamp 24 are moved at a constant speed across the copier and, at the same time, a half speed mirror.
Move 27 in the same direction at half the speed mentioned above. At the end of one scan, the mirrors are in the position indicated by the dashed line on the left hand side of FIG. Such movement of the mirror maintains a constant optical path length, and thus the image is held in sharp focus on the drum throughout this scan. Alternatively, the optical device 22 may be fixed in place and scanned by moving the document across the optical device by the document handling device 2 or 4 as described below.

In the developing station 14, a magnetic brush type developing device
30 develops the electrostatic latent image. The toner is distributed from the hopper 31 into the developing device housing 33 by the rotary foam roll type dispenser 32. The housing 33 contains a two-component mixed developer composed of a magnetically attractable carrier and toner, and the developer is developmentally engaged with the drum 11 by a two-roll magnetic brush type developing device 34.

The developed image is transferred from the drum to a sheet (not shown) of copy paper at the transfer station 15. The sheet is fed by the sheet feeding device 40 and brought into contact with the drum. Sheets of copy paper are stored in two paper trays, a lower main tray 41 and an upper auxiliary tray 42. Further, a dedicated double-sided copy tray or buffer tray 43 is provided, and the tray is used for single-sided copy copying during double-sided copying.
That is, a copy with an image copied on only one side is received, the copy is then sent back from the buffer tray to the photoreceptor, and a second image is received on the other side to form a two-sided copy. To do. As will be described in more detail below, the upper auxiliary tray 42 and the buffer tray 43 have a common bottom sheet feeder 45, said auxiliary tray having an actuator in which the tray is in the buffer tray and a sheet buffer. It is rotatable with respect to an elevated non-actuated position that is received in the tray. The paper sheet is the top member sheet separator /
The paper is fed from the main tray 41 by the feeder 46. Sheets sent from each of the above trays are the pre-transfer sheet transport path.
Guided along 50 and aligned at alignment point 52.
Once aligned, the sheet is brought into contact with the drum in a synchronous relationship with the image, which causes transfer station 15
At, the image is received.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 23, the sheet conveying device from the main tray 41 to the photoconductor is equipped with a sheet separator feeder 55, and the separator feeder is equipped with delivery nip rolls 60, 61. The roll carries the sheet into contact with the pre-transfer guide member 66, which guides the sheet.
Bend 90 ° upwards into the nip of the lower transport rolls 62, 63, which causes the sheet to move to the outer guide 66 and inner guide 67.
And is fed vertically into the nip of the upper transport rolls 64, 65, which feeds the sheet to the registration point 52. The sheet delivered from the buffer tray 43 or the auxiliary tray 42 is delivered into the nip between the upper transport rolls 64 and 65 by the upper tray delivery rolls 68 and 69. The operation of the carrier is initiated by machine logic and is controlled by the input microswitch 53 located on the upper carrier rolls 64,65.

Depending on the case, the copy sheet carrying the transferred image on one side or both sides is fixed by the vacuum conveyance belt 19 to the fixing device.
Sent to 20. This fixing device is a heating roll type fixing device. The image is fused to the copy sheet by heat and pressure in the nip between the two rolls 36, 37 of the fuser. Next, the copy sheet is sent out from the fixing device and disposed at the output portion of the fixing device 20.
Depending on the position of 56, it is sent via the output nip roll 54 to the receiving tray 6 which is an offset receiving tray as described above, or it is routed along the sheet return path or the duplex copying path or separator feeder 55 to the buffer tray. It is sent back to 43. The return passage 55 is folded back at the output portion from the fixing device 20 to form a curved guide member 81, and the curved guide portion 82 is formed again at the inlet portion to the buffer tray 43. These two parts 81 and 82
Are connected by a fixing device 20, a conveyor belt 19 and a horizontal portion 83 extending below the photoconductor 11. Buffer tray 43
Single-sided copy sheets stored in the tray are delivered from the tray in a direction opposite to the direction in which the sheets enter the tray. Since the sheet return passage 55 has the double folding structure as described above, the sheet sent out from the buffer tray 43 to the pre-transfer sheet conveyance device 50 is the photosensitive member.
It is fed in the same way as it has passed through 11, so that the sheet is properly positioned on the other side of the sheet to receive the image. This is because the pre-transfer conveyance device 50 reverses the sheet when the sheet is conveyed to the photoconductor.

After each developed image is transferred from the drum to a copy sheet, the surface of the drum is cleaned at cleaning station 16. The cleaning station has a doctor blade mounted within the housing. The doctor blade scrapes residual toner particles from the drum, and the scraped particles fall to the lower member of the housing, where they are removed by an auger (not shown).

The members of the copier are supported by a frame 57, and are wholly surrounded by a cover 58 having a front entrance door, with the receiving tray 6 of FIG. 1 projecting through the side covers. The copier is properly mounted on the casters. The platen 23 is covered with a hinge stop section cover 59 which can be opened upwards to access the platen. As shown in FIG. 2, the cover 59 incorporates the semi-automatic document handling device 2 so that a sheet manually inserted on one side is automatically sent to the platen 23 for copying. After copying, it is sent out from the platen. Alternatively, the cover, as shown in FIG. 3, incorporates an automatic recirculation document handling device 4 which allows the stacked documents to be sent one at a time onto the platen for copying. It is performed, and after copying, it is returned to the stack. The copier also has a sorter 3 as shown in FIG. 2 or a finishing device 5 as shown in FIG. 3, which are arranged to receive copy sheets from an output nip roll 54. There is.

As described above, the sheet is the main tray 41 or the auxiliary tray.
It is sent from any one of 42, and is sent to the buffer tray 43 during double-sided copying, and then sent again. The auxiliary tray 42 is larger than the main tray,
The size and type of paper to be fed can now be selected more broadly. As will be described later, the buffer tray 43 has a limited range of paper sizes that can be received. The above trays are mechanically arranged below the photoconductor 11 in the lower part of the copying machine.

The paper tray assembly, designated by the reference numeral 90, will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS. The assembly 90 is a lower paper tray unit including a main tray 41 and its feeder 46.
91, and an upper paper tray unit 92 including an auxiliary tray 42 having a common feeder 45 and a buffer tray. The paper tray assembly 90 has a subframe 93 attached to the main frame 57 of the copying machine, and the paper tray units 91 and 92 are supported by the subframe 93 in a cantilevered manner.

The lower tray unit 91 is vertically movably mounted on a pair of vertical rails 101 of the sub-frame 93, and when the paper in the main tray 41 is used up, the tray is raised and the attached top feeder. It is adapted to engage and be in contact with 46 and at the same time allow the tray to descend for loading paper into it. The trays are mounted on a pair of horizontal rails 102 to allow easy access to the main tray 41 for loading and clearing jams, thereby opening the front entrance of the copier. The tray can be pulled out through the door.

The upper tray unit 92 is a double-sided copy buffer storage tray.
It has a vertically fixed component 103 with 43 and a common bottom feeder 45. The illustration of the adjustable back stop for the buffer tray is omitted in FIG. 4, but is shown in FIGS. 13-18. The auxiliary tray 42 is hinged at its left-hand end (as viewed in FIG. 1) or at its rear end at reference numeral 129 to thereby secure the tray's right-hand end or feed end. , Between a raised non-actuated position as shown in FIGS. 2, 4, 7 and 16 and a lowered actuating device as shown in FIGS. 1, 12 and 15. be able to.
In the non-operating position, the copy sheet is fed out, and
The position of refeeding from the buffer tray, the working position, where the auxiliary tray interacts with the bottom feeder 45 and the sheet is ejected from the auxiliary tray along the same path as the sheet from the buffer tray 43. The position.
As shown in FIG. 7, the constituent member 103 includes a pair of horizontal rails 1.
The auxiliary tray 42 has its hinged end member mounted on the third rail 105. As described in more detail below, when the auxiliary tray is lowered, the entire upper paper tray unit 92 is passed through the open front door of the copier in order to approach the auxiliary tray for loading paper and clearing jams. It can be pulled out, and when the auxiliary tray is in its raised position, the tray is non-pullable and the buffer tray component 103 can be pulled out independently for clearing jams during duplex copying. You can The non-pullable lock of the auxiliary tray 42 in the raised position is made by a pin (not shown) that engages behind the slot 106 in the subframe 93 other than the enlarged lower end of the slot 106.

The raising and lowering of the main tray 41 and the auxiliary tray 42 are carried out by a lifting mechanism 110 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and the lifting mechanism always raises the auxiliary tray when the main tray 41 is raised, and , The main tray 41 if the auxiliary tray is lowered
Is also configured to always descend. This is done by a common cable drive and weighting of the auxiliary and main trays. That is, the above weighting is such that the main tray 41 is always effectively heavier than the auxiliary tray 42 even when the main tray is empty and the auxiliary tray is full. The cable driving device is composed of a cable 112 having both ends connected to a capstan 113 attached to the back of the lower tray unit 91. The cable 112 is under a pair of pulleys 114 fixed to the lower paper tray unit 91 and a pair of guide pulleys 115, 1 fixed to a subframe 93 of the paper tray assembly.
Passing above 16. The loop of the cable between the pulleys 116 passes under the pulley 117 attached to the slide block 118. This slide block is slide 1
It is vertically movable between the upper and lower limit positions above 19. The front end or the feeding end of the auxiliary tray 42 (shown by broken lines in FIGS. 5 and 6) is fixed to the slide block 118. A tension spring 120 mounted between the rear end portion 91a of the lower paper tray unit 91 and the subframe 93 causes the lower or main paper tray 41 to move to the upper auxiliary tray 42.
It always has a greater effective weight.
The tension spring 121 mounted between the slide block 118 and the sub-frame 93 holds the cable 112 in a tensioned state.

The camp stun 113 is rotated by a motor 122 attached to the rear end portion 91a of the lower paper tray unit 91.

In the lifting mechanism 110 shown in FIG. 5, the trays 41 and 42 are
Are both in their lowered position. To raise the auxiliary tray 42, the motor 122 is started and the capstan 113
See Fig. 5 and rotate clockwise to wind the cable. Since the auxiliary tray 42 is effectively lighter than the main tray 41, the auxiliary tray first starts to move up and continues to move upward, and the main tray receives the auxiliary tray upper position sensor when the slide block 118 reaches its upper limit position. Switch 123
It is stationary until you activate. As the capstan 113 continues to rotate, the main tray is raised until the top of the stack of sheets 200 in the main tray engages the underside of the nudger wheel 201 which forms part of the sheet feeder 46. Nudger wheel 201 is a paper tray 41
The sheet tray top position sensor switch 124 is lifted by engagement with the top sheet of the stack in
And the switch deactivates the motor 122. The motor 122 is periodically re-energized as the number of sheets in the main tray decreases as the sheets are fed, thereby raising the tray and maintaining engagement with the sheet feeder 46. The paper tray is appropriately raised by about 1 mm for every 10 sheets of 80 gsm paper fed.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which the auxiliary tray 42 is in the fully raised position and the main tray 41 is half raised.

To lower the trays, the capstan 113 is rotated counterclockwise to rewind the cable 112. Then, the main tray 41 is lowered to its lowered position, which is detected by the main tray lower position sensor switch 125. The lowering of the auxiliary tray is performed by further rotating the capstan 113 counterclockwise until the slide block 118 reaches its lower limit position, at which time, the auxiliary tray lower position sensor 126 is operated to remove the motor 122. Energize.

The positioning of the paper trays is performed as follows. That is, except when the double-sided copying is selected, when the front door of the copying machine is opened, the machine logic starts the capstan motor 122 by the door opening sensor (not shown) and the auxiliary tray 42.
And the main tray 41 is located at each lowered position. If the front door is closed and paper feeding from the main tray 41 is selected or double-sided copying is selected,
Both the main tray and the auxiliary tray are moved to their respective raised positions. On the other hand, when sheet feeding from the auxiliary tray is selected, both the auxiliary tray and the main tray are located at their respective lowered positions. If the front door of the copier is opened while the copier is in the duplex mode, the main tray 41 is lowered again but the auxiliary tray 42 remains in its raised position. Effectively, in this case, the capstan 113 is lowered counterclockwise by a motor 122 which causes the main tray to be lowered a short distance, resulting in an auxiliary tray upper position sensor switch 123.
Opens, which signals the machine logic to reverse the motor 122 and return the auxiliary tray to its upper limit position. Then switch 123 opens to de-energize motor 122. As a result, when the front entrance door is opened in the double-sided copy mode, the auxiliary tray is always raised to the full. Therefore, it becomes possible to pull out the double-sided copy buffer tray 43 without being disturbed by the auxiliary tray 42 that has been raised and retained at the predetermined position as described above.

When the auxiliary tray 42 is lowered to feed the sheets from the auxiliary tray, the main tray 41 is also lowered, and when the main tray 41 is raised toward the upper sheet feeder 46, the auxiliary tray 42 is also raised.

As shown in FIG. 7, the auxiliary tray releasably interacts with the slide block 118 by means of a shaft 127 projecting from the back of the auxiliary tray into a hole in the slide block of the lifting device. Except when the auxiliary tray is in its lowered position, a pin (not shown) projecting radially from the axis engages behind the sub-frame 93, which causes the auxiliary tray to move to its lower limit position. Withdrawal is blocked in all positions except. Both the main tray 41 and the buffer tray component 103 are releasably rigidly held in their respective fully inserted positions by suitable snap-in retaining members (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 8, the main paper tray 41 is an upright front wall.
141 and a left-hand side wall 142. Sheet slide 144
It is aligned with the front wall 141 by a movable corner member 143 that is mounted to slide left and right. The slide is itself mounted for sliding back and forth on slide 145. The handle 146 allows the operator to pull the tray out along the rails 102.
Are provided on the front surface of the tray.

As shown in FIG. 8, a trigger 147 on slide 145 actuates a paper size sensing switch that is set to a commonly used paper size. The three switches shown are 356 mm (14 inches), A4 size and 279 mm (11 inches)
Senses the paper length. Instead of the three switches, only two switches may be provided, and one switch may indicate 356 mm paper and the other switch may indicate A4 or 279 mm paper. As will be discussed in more detail below, the width of the loaded copy paper is sensed by the width sensor 71 (FIG. 23) as the paper sheet is passing towards the registration point 52,
The sensor produces a signal that the leading and trailing edges of the sheet have passed during sheet feeding.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 23, the sheet conveying device from the main tray 41 to the photosensitive member is equipped with a sheet separator feeder 46 having feed rolls 60 and 61, which roll advances the sheet. The guide member is brought into contact with the external guide member 66, and the guide member bends the sheet upward by 90 ° to enter the nip of the feeding nip rolls 62 and 63, whereby the sheet is guided.
It is fed vertically between 66 and the internal guide 67 into the nip of common paper feed rolls 64, 65, which feeds the sheet to the registration point 52. Buffer tray 43 or auxiliary tray
Sheets from 42 are fed by upper tray delivery rolls 68, 69 into the nip of common rolls 64, 65. The operation of the transfer device is started by machine logic,
It is controlled by an input microswitch 53 located on the nip rolls 64,65.

The sheet separator / feeder 46 is a roll-on-belt type friction reduction type top sheet feeder, which will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11. Sheet S is
As described above, the sheet is fed from the stack 200 which is carried to the feeding position by the positioning of the paper tray 41. The top sheet of the stack is engaged by a nudger wheel 201 which, when rotated, moves the top sheet towards the nip formed between the feed belt 202 and the speed reducer roll 203. send.

Feeding from the paper tray by the Nudger Wheel 201 is
This is done by creating a vertical stack force (eg, 1.5 Newtons) between the nudger wheel and the paper stat. This force is obtained by the weight of the nudger wheel and its associated components acting under gravity. The nudger wheel 201 is mounted on an axle 204, which is rotatably mounted within a weighted suspension arm 205. The suspension arm 205 is mounted for angular movement about a fixed shaft 206 that is spaced from the axle 204.

The feeding belt 202 is an endless belt wound around the drive pulley 207 and the idle pulley 208. Belt 202
The lower running portion of the belt is bent from below by the deceleration roll 203 pressed against the belt.

The drive pulley 207 is fixed to a shaft 206 that is rotated via a feed clutch in the copier drive. The nudger wheel 201 is rotated by the toothed belt 210 from the shaft 206.

As paper is fed from the stack 200, the paper tray 41 is raised about 1 mm each time ten sheets of 80 gsm paper are fed. This is a microswitch 1 which is activated by the suspension arm 205 of the Nuggia wheel.
Detected by 24 (FIG. 5), which determines the relative position of the stack of sheets with respect to the feeder.

At the beginning of the copy cycle, machine logic queries the device to determine if the paper is in the paper path. If there is no paper in the path, the logic will signal the feed clutch, which will start the feeder. Naggia Wheel 201 is a stack 200
The uppermost sheet of the paper inside is fed into the nip between the feeding belt 202 and the deceleration roll 203. The feeding belt is made of a soft rubber material having a high friction surface. As the feed belt 202 rotates, it pulls a sheet of paper from the stack. Due to the frictional forces between the sheets of paper in the stack and the static electricity, several sheets can enter the nip together.

If several sheets of paper approach the nip together, the friction between the speed reducer 203 and the lowest of the sheets being fed will be greater than the friction between the two sheets. The friction between the feeding belt 202 and the uppermost sheet S1 is also larger than the friction between the two sheets. Therefore,
The group of sheets being fed toward the nip staggers around the curved surface of the deceleration roll 203 to enter the nip, and as a result, the lower side of the two uppermost sheets. Sheet S2 is held by the deceleration roll 203, while the uppermost sheet is fed by the feeding belt 202. Of course, for this to happen, the friction between the feed belt 202 and the sheet of paper must be greater than the friction between the sheet of paper and the deceleration roll 203. Therefore, the feeding belt 202 is the topmost sheet S.
When 1 is separated from the stack, the next sheet S2 is retained in the nip and then fed (FIG. 10).

A retract baffle or shield 211 extends in front of the speed reducer roll 203 to guide the paper into the nip and prevent excessive wear of the speed reducer roll by sheets fed from the top of the paper stack by the nudger wheel. Act.

The feed clutch remains energized (ie, the feeder mechanism continues to operate) until the paper is sensed by the sensor 71 on the lower transport rolls 62,63. The sheet whose front edge has reached the sensor 71 enters under the control of the lower transport rolls 62 and 63, and the roll feeds the sheet to the nip between the upper transport rolls 64 and 65.

The surface speed of the feeding belt 202 is about 20% faster than the processing speed of the copying machine at the interface with the deceleration roll 203. However, due to the friction loss between the belt, the paper, and the deceleration roll, the paper speed is approximately equal to the processing speed. Needless to say, the friction loss is not constant because it easily fluctuates with the weight, size and surface finish of the paper.

As shown in FIG. 11, the reduction roll 203 and the shield 211 are supported by a mounting block 212, and the block is
Operatively positioned to hold the deceleration roll 203 against the underside of the belt 202. Block 212 has axis 212
It is rotatably supported around the center of a and is adapted to retract the deceleration roll 203 from the belt 202 as described later.

In order to obtain a constant speed for the sheet exiting the feeder, the sheet is advanced from the feeder by delivery nip rolls 60,61. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 11,
The nip roll comprises a pair of drive rolls 61 mounted on both sides of a drive pulley 207 on a shaft 206 and a pair of cooperating pressure rolls 60 supported at one end of a leaf spring 215.
The leaf spring roll presses the roll 60 against the roll 61. The other end of the spring 215 is fixed to a block 212 that supports the deceleration roll 203. Driven feeding rolls 6
The diameter of 1 is larger than the diameter of the feeding belt 202. Therefore,
The feeding roll drives the paper at a higher speed than the feeding belt. The feeding belt drive pulley 107 has a clutch for preventing the feeding belt from being dragged.

As described above, the upper tray unit 92 is the auxiliary tray.
It has a double-sided copy buffer tray 43 and a sheet feeder 45. As shown in FIG. 12, the auxiliary tray is
It has a floor 160, a fixed front wall 161, and freely adjustable side walls 162 and rear wall 163. One end of the rear wall 163 is slidably attached to the axle 164, the auxiliary tray is rotated about the axle, and the other end of the rear wall slides on the floor of the auxiliary tray. The side wall 162 is a telescopic type, and the slider 16 attached to the front wall 161 and the rear wall 163 respectively.
It extends between 5 and 166's. A switch 167 actuated on the side guide sidewall 162, as well as a rear guide or wall 163.
Sensor switches 168 and 169 that are operated in accordance with the above are provided to detect a commonly used paper size. For example, switch 167 is A4 size or 432 mm (17 inches) that is fed first with the short edge from the tray.
Used to detect long forms, switches 168 and 169
Is used to detect 356 mm (14 inch) long paper and A4 size or 279 mm (11 inch) long paper fed with the long edge first.

The cutout 171 in the floor 160 of the auxiliary tray 42 is the sheet feeder.
The 45 feeding belts 252 are exposed to the sheets stacked in the auxiliary tray. The structure and operation of the sheet feeder 45 will be described below.

The double-sided copy buffer tray 43 is shown in detail in FIGS. 13 and 14. In the figure, the auxiliary tray is omitted for clarity. The buffer tray 43 has a floor 180, and the feeding belt 252 of the sheet feeder 45 projects through the floor as described later. The buffer tray receives a single-sided copy sheet, that is, a sheet having information already copied on one side of the sheet. Sheets sent from the main tray are fed with the long edge first, as described above for the paper tray,
By its front side edge, that is, the side edge adjacent to the front of the copier,
Aligned with the photoconductor drum 11. As described in more detail below, the sheets moving along the return path are slightly offset toward the rear of the paper path, which causes the sheets to be aligned in the buffer tray with the front wall of the tray. It can enter the buffer tray unobstructed at 181 and be accurately aligned for redelivery to photoreceptor 11. The above tray is also a back strip 182
And the back strip has a scafa roll 183 for feeding sheets toward the front wall 181 of the buffer tray.

To receive sheets of different widths in the buffer tray,
For example, 203mm (8 inches) to 216mm The back strip 182 is adjustable by a back strip adjustment mechanism 184 between front and rear limit positions for receiving a width of paper. The back strip 182 and its adjusting mechanism 184 are attached to the upper paper tray unit 92,
It can be moved as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. That is, as shown in FIG.
It is movable to and from the depressed non-actuated position as shown, and in FIG. 15, the height of the floor 180 of the buffer tray is indicated by the auxiliary tray 42 as it descends to its actuated position. It has been pushed below.

The scaffold 183 projects upward from just below the projection 186, said projection forming an extension of the floor 180 in the operative position of the back strip. The above-mentioned scaffold roll rotates clockwise around the vertical axis when viewed from above,
O-ring type drive 187 emerging from drive shaft 188 of motor 189 mounted on frame 190 of back strip
Can be rotated through. The scaffold is made of a suitable high friction material such as polyurethane. A rear wall section 191 located immediately after the scaffold roll helps straighten the bent sheet.

The adjustment of the back strip is done automatically in response to sensing the width of the sheet fed long edge first from the main tray in a manner described below during duplex copying, and the movement of the back strip is , A crank 19 mounted on the drive shaft 188 and under the control of two microswitches 193, 194
2 (FIGS. 17 and 18). The motor 189 is reversible and the crank 192 is connected to the shaft 1 via the one-way clutch.
It is connected to 88 so that the crank 192 is disengaged in the normal driving direction of the shaft, which rotates the scaffold roll in the clockwise direction. However, when the motor is reversed to adjust the position of the back strip, the crank 192 is engaged. Crank 192
The angle of movement of is controlled by microswitches 193, 194. The microswitch has its actuator mounted on a cam 194 attached to a drive shaft 188. To adjust the position of the back strip, the motor 189 is activated by a signal generated by the machine logic (microprocessor) and the microswitch 193, in response to the width sensed for the sheet ejected from the main tray.
Timed via 194. The microswitches together provide three stop positions for the adjustable back strip. That is, switch 193 is activated, switch 194 is activated, and both of these switches are activated. While adjusting the back strip described above, escafarol 18
3 rotates counterclockwise. But this does not come at a disadvantage. That is, there is no sheet in the buffer tray during adjustment.

The width of the sheet, ie the dimension in the direction of travel (long edge first) of the sheet, is sensed by the sensor 71 on the lower transport rolls 62,63. As shown in FIG. 31, the sensor 71 is connected to a timer 75 for timing the passage of the leading edge and the trailing edge of the sheet passing through the sensor 71, and outputs a signal indicating the width of the sheet to a controller (microprocessor). ) Send to 76. The controller activates the microprocessors 193, 194 to activate the motor 189 and position the back strip 182 depending on the width of the seat.

Figures 17 and 18 show the back strip fully advanced and fully retracted positions, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 14, the sheet coming out of the sheet return passage 55 is passed through a driven corrugating roll 387 (only the top set of the rolls is shown in FIG. 14) to the buffer tray. Entered, this allows the above sheet to be a back strip
182 towards the front wall 1 of the buffer tray where the scaffold rolls 183 move the sheets toward the front wall 1.
Match to 81. Buffer tray 43 as shown
Slopes downwards towards the back strip 182,
This helps maintain the contact between the sheet and the scaffold roll 183 and at the same time helps align the sheet in the front-back direction, ie against the back strip.

Sheet separation and capture is accomplished by vacuum belt bottom sheet corrugation feeders (VCF) 45 from both buffer tray 43 and auxiliary tray 42, floating pressure differential between the lowest sheet and the sheet above it, sheet corrugation and It is performed using a vacuum. The floors of the trays 42, 43 are interdigitated and shaped to form a contour pocket 251 at the leading edge of each tray. That is, each tray is dished in the manner described in co-pending UK patent application No. 8,226,848 filed Sep. 21, 1982 to the applicant, thereby placing it in the tray. The cut document is formed so as to bridge the gap to form a floating pocket. Conveyor belt
252 climbs to the surface through the trays in contour pocket 251. Floating of the sheet stack is performed by blowing air from the air knife 253 to the front. This jet of air strikes tray 42 or 43 just in front of the leading edge of the document stack. This results in volumetric expansion of the air in the tray pockets and ruffles the leading edge of the sheet stack, creating an air pocket between the bottom sheet and the next sheet. This helps capture, separate and feed the bottom document.

The vacuum belt corrugator 45 captures the bottom sheet in the stack and when the air knife 253 separates the bottom sheet from the rest of the stack, the sheet is directed to the delivery roll pair 68, 69. send. The delivery rolls 68, 69 feed the sheets into the nip of the common rolls 64, 65 from which they are fed to the registration point 52.

19 to 22 show the sheet separator feeder 45 in detail, and a plurality of feeding belts 252 are movably supported on a feeding belt roll 254 (see also FIG. 1). Within the run of belt 252 are spaced vacuum plenums 255 having vacuum openings or ports 256 for cooperating with holes 257 in belt 252 to provide vacuum to the bottom of the sheet stack. Seat of belt 252
It is designed to attract upwards. There are five rubber vacuum belts 252 and the central belt 252a is preferably slightly higher than the other four belts so as to create a corrugation when the sheet is pulled down by the vacuum. The frequency and size of holes 257 in belt 252 regulate the amount of air drawn through the holes. The conveyor belt 252 moves across the top plate 258 of the vacuum plenum 255,
The frequency and size of 6 regulates the amount of air drawn into the vacuum chamber below.

The belt 252 extends through a tray-shaped recess or pocket 251 in the tray such that the belt is below the supporting surface of the sheet tray around it, so that air is passed through the perforated belt 252 and into the vacuum plenum. When pulled into 255, the bottom sheet is pulled downward into the pocket, thus starting to separate the bottom sheet from the rest of the stack. Sheet separation is further driven by the airflow from air knife 253. The air knife comprises a pressurized air plenum 261 which feed belt 2
Having a plurality of air injection openings 262 provided for injecting air into a pocket formed between the lowermost sheet pulled down toward 52 and the sheet above it,
Air cushions or bearings are provided between the stack and the bottom sheet to minimize the force required to remove the bottom sheet from the stack. The air flow from the air knife 253 also has the effect of causing the stack to wavy, reducing the effective weight of the paper stack.

To further increase the efficiency of this device, the buffer tray 4
3, and further, the auxiliary tray 42 is inclined rearward as described above, for example, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. When floating air is supplied below the stack or between the first and second sheets, gravity causes the sheets to move or float toward the back wall (rear stop 182) of the tray. Thus, the ejected sheets are pulled upwards, while the remaining sheets are held behind by gravity, thus preventing multiple feeds.

The sheet feeder 45 is shown in the enlarged perspective view of FIG. 19 and the sectional views of FIGS. 20 and 21. Within the vacuum plenum chamber 255 is a vacuum flap valve 263, which is a top plate 258.
And the timing of the vacuum through the openings in the belt 252, and thus also the timing of document capture. Valve 263
It is actuated by a shaft 264 which passes through the side wall of the vacuum chamber and is attached to a solenoid 265. A vacuum relief valve 266 is also provided on one of the walls of the chamber. The relief valve is actuated by the pressure in the chamber and when the vacuum flap valve 263 is closed, or when a document is captured by the vacuum transfer device, effectively blocking the inlet 256 to the vacuum chamber 255. First, air is caused to flow to the air knife 253.

Below the vacuum plenum chamber 255 is a scroll-type impeller chamber containing an impeller 267. The impeller 267 is rotated by a motor 268 located immediately below the impeller. The air drawn through the vacuum conveyor belt 252 and the vacuum plenum chamber 255 is exhausted to the air knife 253 disposed above the front edge of the buffer / auxiliary tray and is guided to the air knife.

To feed sheets from either buffer tray 43 or auxiliary tray 42, solenoid 265 is energized and vacuum valve 263 is closed. Start the impeller motor 268 to start the impeller
267 is rotated to draw air into the plenum chamber 255 through a vacuum relief valve 266 that is automatically lifted by air pressure. Air drawn into the chamber 255 is evacuated through the air knife 253 through the air knife duct 269 where it is directed to the stack of sheets causing the bottom sheet of the stack to be separated by this air flow and of the stack of sheets. Reduce the effective weight. The drive clutch that controls the delivery rolls 68, 69 is actuated to rotate these rollers. There, the vacuum valve solenoid 265 is de-energized and the vacuum valve 2
63 opens, which holds the bottom sheet of the stack against the vacuum feed belt 252. A short time to ensure that the lowest sheet is caught by the belt before the belt starts moving, and to give the air knife 253 time to separate the lowest sheet from the pulled down sheet together with the sheet. After the delay of, the feeding belt is started to feed the lowest sheet to the feeding roll.
Proceed toward 68, 69. When the leading edge of the sheet is captured by the unload rolls 68, 69, the sensor signals the microprocessor to reactivate the vacuum valve solenoid 265 to close the vacuum valve 263 and early in the next sheet. Prevent capture. Air knife 253 continues to support the weight of the stack with air being drawn through vacuum relief valve 266.

The sensor 48 immediately in front of the delivery rolls 68 and 69 is
Control the arrival of seats at 68 and 69 in the following manner.

An air knife relief valve 271 is provided inside the air knife duct 269. The valve 271 is open when the auxiliary tray 42 is raised and the buffer tray 43 is in use, and is closed when the auxiliary tray 42 is lowered to feed sheets. Valve 271
Is biased to its open position and when the auxiliary tray 42 is lowered, it is automatically closed by a protrusion 272 on the tray which engages a lever 272 attached to the valve (FIG. 12). The purpose of this valve will be explained below.

A corrugating roll or roller 387 is positioned above the air knife 253, and the air knife is provided with guide fins 274 on its upper surface to help the sheets enter the buffer tray. Also, when duplex copying is selected, the impeller motor 268 is started as soon as the sheet is fed from the main tray, which causes the sheet to leave the corrugating roll and reach the buffer tray. Airflow, which helps to direct the sheet toward the back strip 182 and at the same time reduces frictional forces that could otherwise interfere with proper sheet alignment.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the speed of the impeller motor 268, and thus also the air knife pressure and the trapping pressure, is varied during sheet delivery from the auxiliary tray 42, depending on the stack height of the sheets. This allows for sufficient air knife pressure to separate the bottom sheet without causing significant turbulence when the stack is thick and without blowing the sheets when the stack is thin. Can be provided. To this end, the height of the stack at the beginning of sheet feeding from the auxiliary tray 42 is sensed, and the speed of the motor is adjusted to one of a plurality of speeds according to the height of the stack. . Sheets are counted while the stack is being consumed, and the motor speed is diminished from time to time. A suitable stack height sensor is described in our co-pending UK patent application No. 8,226,808 filed Sep. 21, 1982, and as can be seen from this description, the auxiliary tray 42 has its raised position. The mechanical sensor arm is engaged by the sheet stack in the tray when In this regard, according to the copying machine control means, the auxiliary tray is always raised to its upper limit position when the front door of the copying machine is opened before positioning the tray for sheet feeding. .

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the auxiliary tray accommodates up to 224 sheets of A4 size, but the motor is 100% of the full speed for 224 to 160 sheets and 160 to 128 sheets. 89% against it, 85% against 128 to 96 sheets, 80% against 96 to 64 sheets, 77% against 64 to 32 sheets,
Rotate at 75% for 32 to 0 sheets. Such a tray can also accommodate 160 A3 size sheets and the motor is 100% of full speed for 160-96 such sheets and 89% for 96-48 sheets. , Rotate at 75% for 48 to 0 sheets.

As described above, the air knife relief valve 271 is open during sheet feeding from the double-sided copy buffer tray 43. The capacity of the buffer tray 43 is smaller than that of the auxiliary tray 42, and in the above example, the buffer tray can accommodate up to 50 sheets. However, the one-sided copy sheet arriving from the photoconductor 11 and passing through the fixing device 20 is
It tends to be softer than the uncopied sheets used in the auxiliary tray and is often curved to some extent. This requires a larger capture pressure through the vacuum valve 263 than for uncopied sheets, while the air knife pressure should not be so great as to disturb the sheet violently, and the sheet bends downwards. Belt several sheets at the same time because there is a possibility
It cannot be large enough to push downwards towards the 252 and cause multiple feeds. Air knife relief valve 271
It is for this reason that is provided in the air knife duct, which allows the trapping pressure to be properly balanced against the air knife pressure. Therefore, in the above-described embodiment, during feeding from the buffer tray, the impeller motor appropriately rotates at a fixed speed of 87% of the full speed of the motor, and the air knife relief valve 271 is open. This provides a higher sheet capture pressure and lower air knife pressure than sheet feeding from the auxiliary tray.

Even when feeding from the auxiliary tray without changing the trapping pressure and the air knife pressure, the air knife relief valve 27
It is desirable to use 1 during feeding from the buffer tray, and if the capacity of the auxiliary tray and the buffer tray are the same or not very different, for example, the motor speed should be set during the feeding of the buffer tray. It is desirable to make it larger than the auxiliary tray feeding.

As previously mentioned, the sheets being fed, especially those from the buffer tray 43, often curve downwards, increasing the tendency of the sheets to overlap one another. This is because the downward bending increases friction, and this bending tends to impede the flow of air from the air knife 253 between the bottom sheet and the next sheet. When this overlap occurs, the leading edges of these sheets may approach the air knife and even under the air knife, further obstructing the air flow. This problem becomes more pronounced at slower sheet feeds such as those required to feed documents to the platen at a controlled speed for feeding across stationary optics in constant velocity mode. If the document can be fed at high speed, for example when the document is aligned on the platen and then copied, the above problems are reduced.
It is considered that this is because the inertia becomes high.

To solve this problem, a pair of ramps 275 are formed at the front end of the support surface on each side of the tray-shaped area of the tray. Ramp 275 corresponds to British Patent Application No. 8,226,848, cited above.
As described in No. 3, the sheet is inclined upward in the sheet feeding direction and protrudes forward beyond the normal stacking position of the leading edges of the sheets in the tray. Stacking downwardly curving sheets in a tray results in limited beam intensity of the sheets across the tray, and such sheets are generally prone to droop into the dish-shaped area or pocket. The ramps not only lift the leading edge of the sheet above the plane or floor of the tray, but also improve the transverse beam intensity of the sheet, both of which improve air injection.

In the illustrated embodiment, the dish-shaped areas or pockets in the auxiliary tray 42 and the buffer tray 43 are formed by the surface portions 276, 277 on each side of the pocket which slope downwardly toward the pocket. , The pocket narrows rearward from the front end of the tray and widens more gently, with an angled wing near the front of the pocket which is deepest at the front edge of the tray. This configuration is based on the above-mentioned British Patent Application No. 8,226,
No. 848 is clearly described and is shown in FIG.

Sheets from feeders 45 or 46 are fed by rolls 64, 65 to an alignment nip or point 52. The purpose of aligning the sheets at the nip 52 is to release each sheet relative to the photoreceptor in sync with the developed image on the photoreceptor drum. Alignment can also be used to remove bending from the sheet. In the aligning device shown in FIGS. 23, 24 and 25, there are two (or three) aligning fingers 301 on both sides of the aligning pinch roll 302. Pinch roll 302
Can engage and disengage with the co-driving roll 303, and the finger 301 has an operating position in which the tip portion thereof projects through the slot 305 in the external guide 66 into the passage of the seat, and the seat It is movable to and from the retracted position raised from the passage. The pinch roll 302 and finger 301 are operated in the following manner. That is, before the sheet reaches the nip 52, the rolls 302, 303 are disengaged and the finger 301 is moved to its operative position. The sheet being fed by the upper transport rolls 64, 65 is deflected downward by the curved upper portion 72 of the guide 66 toward the opposing guide surface 73 (Fig. 23), which guide surface is the front edge of the sheet. Through the alignment nip and toward the tip 304 of the finger 301. The surfaces 72 and 73 together form a warpage inducing chamber, which overfeeds the sheet against the finger 301 and removes bends from the sheet without folds. Therefore, the seat bends smoothly as shown in FIG. In order to feed the sheet to the photoreceptor 11, the pinch roll 302 is engaged with the drive roll 303,
Then, the alignment finger 301 is retracted. Subsequently, the drive roll 303 is rotated to feed the sheet to the developed image on the photoconductor in a synchronous relationship.

The alignment finger 301 is actuated by the alignment solenoid 317 through a series of linking devices. Solenoid 317
When the crank arm 318 is activated, the crank arm 318 rotates clockwise (second
(See Figure 3 to Figure 25). The arm 318 carries an actuating pin 321 at its upper end, which moves along a slot 322 in a link 323 and moves the link 323 counterclockwise about the axis of the rod 324. Link 3
23 is fixed to the rod 324, so that the rod 324 also makes an angular movement in the counterclockwise direction. This allows the matching fingers
The leading edge of 301 is moved downward through slot 305 in external guide 66 into the paper path. Finger 301 is
Applicant's spring loaded, as described in pending UK patent application No. 8,226,812 filed September 21, 1982, which damages it on a sheet of paper passing through an alignment nip. You can descend without incident.

When the alignment finger 301 is lowered, the alignment pinch roll 302
Can be raised. As described above, when the solenoid 317 is activated, the actuating pin 321 moves upward in an arc. As a result, the right-hand end of the link 328 on the other side of the support 320 is lifted and moved to the right. Link
The left-hand end of 328 is a lever 32 pivotally attached to a rod 324.
It is pivotally attached to the upper end of 9. Therefore, the lever 329 makes a clockwise angular movement. The lever 329 is fixed to a substantially rectangular elastic support bracket 330, which supports the axle 331 of the alignment pinch roll 302 at its upper edge. When the lever 329 moves clockwise, the roll 302
The roll is lifted away from cooperating alignment drive roll 303 (FIG. 23) through slot 305 in outer guide 66. The roll 302 is pushed toward the roll 303 by a spring 332 (Fig. 27). The various linkages described above are configured such that the finger 301 moves downwards before the roll 302 ascends in the first part of the movement caused by the activation of the solenoid 317. Conversely, when the solenoid is deenergized, the alignment finger 301
The roll 302 descends before the rises.

Alignment solenoid 317 includes nip roll or feed roll 6
It is energized by a signal generated by a sensor switch 53 which is activated by the sheet moving into the 4, 65.
The actuation of energizing alignment solenoid 317 causes alignment finger 301 to enter the paper path and open the nip between alignment pinch roll 302 and drive roll 303. Spring 333 causes solenoid 317 to return to its non-actuated position, resetting the alignment mechanism to close the nip and retract the finger.

The sheet of paper is sent to the alignment position. That is, the leading edge of the sheet is aligned with the alignment fingers 30 by the upper transport rolls 64 and 65.
A small warp is formed on the sheet by the warp inducers 72, 73 brought into contact with 1. The solenoid 317 is then de-energized by the timed signal from the machine logic and returned by spring 333. When the solenoid is de-energized, the pinch roll 302 closes to the paper and then the alignment finger 301 is lifted from the paper path so that the paper is conveyed to the photoreceptor as soon as the drive roll 303 is rotated. Become.

When the paper is conveyed by the photoreceptor 11 and then by the pre-fixing conveyor 19, the solenoid 317 is re-energized for the second sheet. As a result, the pinch roll 302 is raised and the alignment finger 301 is lowered. However, the alignment fingers are held back by the sheet as it passes through the alignment nip and ride lightly on this moving sheet. When the trailing edge of the sheet comes out of the nip 52,
The fingers fall into the gap between this sheet and the next sheet, aligning the second sheet. This series of operations can reduce the inter-sheet gap to a minimum and thus increase the copy sheet throughput. For the sheets to behave in this way, the sheets are rolls 302, 3
It must be longer than the distance between 03 and the next drive (vacuum transfer device 19). That is, the rolls 302 and 303
Because the leading edge of the sheet cannot be separated until it is picked up by the next conveying device.

As described above, the aligning device 52 can keep the inter-sheet gap to a minimum. To take advantage of this feature, it is necessary for the sheet feeders 45 and 46 to be able to feed sheets in close proximity. This is accomplished by attaching to each of the feeders a wait station formed by a wait station sensor. The main tray feeder 46, as shown in FIG.
Waiting station sensor located immediately downstream of 60, 61
The upper tray feeder 39 has a waiting station sensor 48 located immediately upstream of the delivery rolls 68, 69, as shown in FIG.

During feeding from the main tray sheet feeder, the first sheet is fed until the sensor 47 detects the leading edge. The feed clutch is temporarily stopped and then the sheet is fed past the sensor. The sheet feeder continues to operate, so that the next sheet subsequently arrives at the sensor 47, where it waits until the machine logic requests delivery of the next sheet. This device reduces the time between sheet feeding and registration. That is, because the sheet is closer to the alignment fingers 301 at the beginning of the paper feeding cycle, and the leading edge of the sheet is always at the same position at the beginning of the paper feeding cycle.

As the first sheet in the series is fed from the upper tray unit by the sheet feeder 45, the vacuum belt 252 is driven until the leading edge of the sheet is detected by the sensor 48. After a short delay, vacuum belt 252
Is activated again, moving the sheet into the delivery rolls 68, 69 and feeding it to the alignment fingers 301. Then vacuum valve 263
Is closed and the belt 252 is stopped, which prevents premature feeding of the second sheet. However, when the first sheet is taken away, the subsequent sheet is immediately captured and sent to the waiting station where it sends the sheet to the nip of the delivery rolls 68, 69 to the alignment finger 301. Wait for the machine logic to generate the necessary signals to restart the vacuum belt. Therefore, as in the feeder 46, the inter-sheet gap is uniform, and therefore the gap is too small to detect the gap and allow the alignment fingers to fall into the gap. Minimized to none.

A mechanical main tray feeder 46 (belts and rolls 202, 203 and feed rolls 60, 61), lower and upper transport rolls 62, 63 and 6 to ensure sheet feeding through the transport path.
The various nips of 4, 65 and the alignment rolls 302, 303 grip the sheet tightly. A mechanism is provided to automatically disengage or disengage the drive nip when the front entrance door of the copier is open to facilitate removal of jammed or stuck sheets from the transport. Has been.

This nip separating mechanism is shown in FIGS. 27 to 30. When the door is opened or closed, the actuation mechanism 220 is actuated and the mechanism acts on the vertical slider 221. The vertical slider has a raised position in which the nip is closed as shown in FIG. 29,
It can move to and from the lowered position where the nips are separated as shown in FIG. When the slider 221 is in the raised position, the lever 222 on the lower end of the slider 221 pushes the mounting block 212 upward to rotate the block upward about its pivot axis 212a, and the feeding roll 60 becomes the feeding roll 61. , The friction deceleration roll 203 is engaged with the deceleration belt or the feeding belt 202. Floating rollers or transport rolls 62 and 64 are in horizontal slots 223 in pre-transfer paper path frame 70,
The leaf springs 224 and 225 are pushed into the operating position to engage the respective drive rolls 63 and 64. Matching roll 302
As described above, is pressed toward the roll 303 by the spring 332 connected to the pre-transfer sheet conveyance frame shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 28, the slide actuating mechanism 220 has a crank type arm 226, which is rotated counterclockwise by the knob 227 when the front door of the copying machine is closed, so that the nip separating slide is moved. That is, the vertical slider 221 is lifted. That is, the knob is engaged by the front door of the copier when it closes, pushing the push rod 228 toward the crank arm 226. The push rod 228 is in two parts interconnected by a compression spring 229 so that the tolerance can be varied. A latch 230 is provided on the knob 227 to allow paper feed when the door is open, and a special interlocking device used by service personnel to check the operation of the copier. Is in place.

When the front door is opened, the push rod mechanism retracts,
The nip separating slide 221 moves downward by the action of the spring 231, so that the feeder mounting block 212 is lowered to separate the friction reduction roll 203 from the reduction belt 202 and the feeding roll 60 from the feeding roll 61. Cancel the combination. The upward movement of the spring 213 (Fig. 11) is blocked by the shoulder 214 on the block 212 as it descends. At the same time, a ramp 232 on the slider disengages the idler rolls 62 and 64 from the drive rolls 63 and 65, and also the slider 22.
An adjustable pin 233 on the upper end of 1 presses against the support bracket 330 to disengage the alignment roll 302 from the drive roll 303.

After the transfer on the photoreceptor 11, the sheet is sent to the fixing device 20 by the vacuum transfer device 19, and the sheet is passed through the fixing device by the fixing device nip rolls 36 and 37. Sheets emerging from the fusing device are directed by a deflector 56 to an output device via an exit nip roll 54, or to a double-sided copy sheet return passage 55 to a buffer storage tray 43. The sheet return passage 55 (FIG. 32) has a first reversing guide 81, and the single-sided copy sheet sent to the buffer tray is reversed once by the reversing guide to change its running direction, and the fixing device 20 The sheet is fed along the horizontal transport device 19 and the horizontal guide 83 below the photoconductor 11 in the direction opposite to the direction in which the sheet passes through the photoconductor and passes through the fixing device. At the end of the horizontal passage 83, the sheet enters a curved guide 82 which inverts the sheet again and guides it into the buffer tray 43. Photoconductor 11 and buffer tray 43
And the sheet is flipped twice so that it enters the buffer tray in the same orientation as it came out of the photoreceptor. The single-sided copy sheet to be copied on both sides is fed from the buffer tray 43 from left to right as shown in FIG. 1, that is, in the direction opposite to the direction in which the sheet enters the tray and the uncopied sheet. The sheet is fed in the same direction as the above, and is returned to the photoreceptor by the pre-transfer sheet path 50. About 180 single-sided copy sheets between the buffer tray 43 and the photoconductor
Inverted, this inversion of the sheet causes the uncopied side of the one-sided copy sheet to face the photoreceptor to receive a second image. With such a configuration, the sheet is turned over three times during the double-sided copying from the time when the sheet leaves the photoconductor to the time when the sheet passes through the photoconductor again. This is done without the provision of a special reversing device so that the sheet is double-sided in the copy return path.
55 and by natural reversal as it is conveyed along the pre-transfer paper path. Due to the double-folded shape of the double-sided copy return passage 55, the copying machine can be made extremely small,
Moreover, all of the paper trays 41, 42, 43 are arranged in a close row, thus facilitating the approach of the operator, and at the same time, a common feeder 45 for the buffer tray 43 and the auxiliary tray 42.
Can be used.

As it passes through the sheet return passages 55, each sheet passes through a curl removal mechanism 350 located at the beginning of the horizontal guide 83 and by a biasing mechanism 370 as it travels along the horizontal guide 83. Can be offset to the side.

The redirector 56 is always positioned to deflect the sheet towards the output nip roll 54 when single-sided copying is selected. During double-sided copying, the position of the above turning device is
Changes are made according to a predetermined procedure to send the completed copy to the output or receiving tray 6 while sending the unfinished copy along the sheet return path 55. The redirector is controlled by the microprocessor of the copier and is actuated by a microswitch 49 which is triggered by the leading edge of the copy as it enters the fuser. The curved guide 81 of the sheet return passage 55 has inner and outer guide members 84 and 85 and a nip roll 86.
The turning device 56 is attached to the upper end of the external guide 85,
Then, it is operated by a cable 87 from a solenoid 88 mounted on an external guide 85 below it.
The external guide 85 is hinged to the copier frame so that it can access the paper path 55.

As the copy passes through the fusing device 20, the soft heating roll 36 and the hard pressure roll 37 tend to bend the paper, thus causing the copy to curl with the image side outside the curve. It is important to remove this bend from the sheet as much as possible before it enters the buffer tray to avoid handling problems. For this purpose, the sheet to be fed along the return path is provided with a sheet curl removing device which is arranged at the entrance of the horizontal guide 83.
Pass 350. The bending device 350 includes a pair of cooperating rolls 35.
1, 352 and associated baffle means 353 are provided which allow the sheet passing through the curl removal mechanism to curve around the lower roll 352 and substantially offset the opposite curl created in the fuser. Positioned with respect to the sheet path to cause the sheet to bend at a sufficient angle.

As shown in FIGS. 33 and 34, the bend removing mechanism 350 is
A hard roll 352 having a small diameter such as a metal (steel) shaft, and a relatively soft upper roll 351 having, for example, a compressible rubber surface and engaging with the hard roll are provided. Is spring loaded and lower roll 352
To form a nip 354. Baffle 353 nip
Extending downwardly on the downstream side of 354, it is arranged to divert the sheet downwards to control the wrap angle around the lower roll, which lower roll controls the degree of curl removal. The position of the baffle 353 can be adjusted in the sheet feeding direction, that is, between the positions illustrated by the broken line and the solid line in FIG. 34 in the horizontal direction so that the wrap angle of the sheet around the lower roll 352 can be adjusted. It has become. A suitable adjustment mechanism, designated by reference numeral 355, is provided for this purpose.

When the upper roll 351 is continuous, the front edge of the baffle 353 is located adjacent to the peripheral edge of the upper roll,
Due to the gap between the roll and the leading edge of the baffle, the nip 354, especially if the baffle is adjustable.
There is a possibility that a sheet passing through the above may pass above the baffle without passing below. To avoid this possibility, steel shaft 351a
The upper roll 351 is discontinuous by arranging a series of spaced rubber rollers 351 on it, and the baffle is provided with retracting tongues 356 extending between the rollers. In the illustrated embodiment, these tongues are at intersection 35.
7 are interconnected upstream of the rollers.

The lower roll 352 of the bending removal mechanism is, for example, a steel shaft having a diameter of about 8 mm, and the upper roll 351 is, for example, about 16 mm in diameter.
The steel shaft 351a has a neoprene roller attached thereto.

The baffles 353 are arranged at an angle of 25 ° to 40 ° with respect to the vertical plane, and the horizontal distance between the surface of the lower roll 352 and the baffle along the center line of the lower roll 352 is defined by the angle of the baffle and 1.0mm to 10m, depending on the weight of the paper
Set to m. For example, in one embodiment, the baffle angle is 33 ° and the roll to baffle spacing is 7.7 mm.

As shown in FIG. 33, the upper roll 351 is attached to a fixed bracket 358 attached to the copier frame, and is rotated via a gear 359. Lower roll 352
Is a lower bracket 360 pivotally attached at reference numeral 361.
And is pressed upward by the leaf spring 362 and pressed against the upper roll.

At the exit from the curl remover 350, post curl guide 363 returns the sheet horizontally. To limit vertical separation of the sheet passages on either side of the curl remover, input guides 364, 365 at the ends of the guide members 84, 85 guide the sheets upward into the curl remover mechanism. The sheet is moved by the curl removing rolls 351 and 352 along the horizontal support surface 380 below the horizontal transport belt 381 that is wound around the rollers 382 and 383, and the pinch rollers 384 in the belt running unit are provided. Presses the lower running portion of the belt against the roller 385 protruding through the support surface 380, thereby drivingly engaging the belt and the sheet.

A biasing mechanism 370 is arranged at the downstream end of the belt 381. A pair of outrigger rolls 371 is provided on the shaft 386 of the downstream belt guide roll (383) and is engaged with the pair of skew rolls 372. As shown in FIG. 36, these skew rolls are arranged at an angle with respect to the sheet traveling path. These rolls serve to bend the sheets that pass through them, as shown in FIG. 36, thus biasing the sheets toward the rear of the copier. This bending angle shown in FIG. 36 is, for convenience of illustration,
It is shown slightly larger and a suitable bending angle is about 4 °.

The bent sheet enters the curved guide 82 and is fed into the buffer tray by the corrugating roller 387 arranged on the cast body mounted under the return conveyance path 83. The corrugating rollers 387, shown in FIG. 37, stiffen the paper and give it sufficient beam intensity to be cast toward the back strip 182 of the buffer tray.

The operation of the copying machine shown in FIG. 1 will be described below. As described above, the sheets to be copied are sequentially placed on the platen 23, scanned by the optical device 22 to create an image on the drum 11, and then the image is developed. Copy sheets are sent to the photoconductor from either the main tray 41 or the auxiliary tray 42, and during single-sided copying, these sheets are sent directly into the output tray 6 through the fixing device. During double-sided copying, sheet feeding must be from the main tray and the auxiliary tray must be raised. Place the first page on the platen 23, scan,
The required number of copy sheets are sent from the main tray 41. These sheets are sent to the buffer tray 43 along the sheet return passage 55 and are temporarily stored in the tray. Then, the second page is placed on the platen and scanned. At this time, the copy sheet to receive this image is fed from the double-sided copy buffer tray 43, and the double-sided copy thus made is sent from the copying machine into the output tray 6. The third page is copied to the uncopied sheets from the main tray and these sheets are sent to the buffer tray. The fourth page is copied to the side opposite the sheet on which the third page is being copied and these sheets are sent directly to the output tray. This process continues until all pages have been copied. If the number of pages is odd, the last page is copied as a one-sided document.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the copier has a semi-automatic document handling device 2 and a sorter 3. The semi-automatic document handling device 2 is arranged on the platen 23 and supports documents manually.
It can be inserted into the right hand side of 401 and sent to the platen for copying, and after copying, it can be sent from the platen into the receiving tray 402 on the left hand side. Documents that have been manually inserted must be aligned by the alignment device before being sent to the platen.
Pre-matched by 403. Documents are on conveyor belt 404
Sent across the platen. The exposure of documents
The document is passed at a constant speed through an optical device 22, which is stationary in the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, or the document is aligned on a platen, and the optical device 22 is traversed across it. It is performed by scanning. For this purpose, an alignment member or gate or feeder 39 is provided which can be moved by a conventional solenoid actuator to or out of the sheet blocking position at the alignment edge of the platen. And align the document to its rest position on platen 23, while
Optical device 22 is adapted to scan across the document. In one preferred embodiment where multiple copies of a document sheet are required, the first copy is in constant speed mode (optical device stationary) as the document is fed onto the platen. Make and make subsequent copies in scan mode (moving optics) with the document stationary.

The sorter 3 comprises 15 or 20 bins B arranged in vertical rows. Sheets are delivered to bin B by the sorter and a substantially horizontal transport device 411 that extends across a vertical transport device 412 that extends downwards through the bin B inlet. Sheets taken by the applicant December 1980
It is diverted into the bin by a diverter or gate G in the manner described in detail in pending UK patent application No. 8,041,083 filed on 22nd.

A temporary output tray (not shown) may be provided and in one embodiment this tray is located directly above the horizontal transport device 411. Both the temporary tray and the transport device 411 have a position where the horizontal transport device aligns with the output nip roll 54 of the processing device and the tray processes as described in detail in the above-mentioned British Patent Application No. 8,041,083. It is moveable between the output nip roll 54 of the device and the aligned position.

The single-sided copy sheets that come out of the processor are redirectors 41
It is guided from the horizontal transport device 411 to the vertical transport device 412 by 3. Therefore, when copying is performed in the ascending serial page number order (from 1 to n), the one-sided copy sheets directly guided to the bin B are face down and collected in the serial page number order. However, duplex copies are not collected in the correct page number order for the reasons explained below. For this reason, a sheet reversal device 414 is provided in the sorter. The reversing device 414 is a conventional three-roll reversing device arranged along the side of the vertical transport device 412. The reversing device has a width of 203 mm (8
Inch) or 216 mm Has a warping chamber 415 dimensioned to receive and warp the sheets of. When the reversing device 413 is in the position shown in FIG. 2, the sheet is fed into the warping chamber 415 through the space between the input roll 416 and the common roll 417 which rotate in the opposite directions.
The trailing edge of the sheet is carried around the face of the foam roller mounted on the common roll (417) axis and the common roll 41
Enter the nip between 7 and output roll 418. The sheet then enters the vertical transport 412 guided by the other side of the deflector 413, which is generally triangular. The common roll 417 is a driven roll, and the input roll 416 and the output roll 418 are idle rolls.

Both the single-sided copying and the double-sided copying are compared with the copying machine shown in FIG. It is made by the method described above. Single-sided copy sheets are collected in the sorter 3 in the usual manner. However, when copying a double-sided copy sheet in the order of page numbers, the sheet emerges from the copier with even-numbered pages facing up. Directing these sheets directly to the sorter bin in the same way as single-sided copying, they are collected in the order from bottom to top of the stack, i.e. 2/1, 4/3, 6/5 etc. Become. The sheet is passed through an inverter 414 in order to obtain the desired serial page number sequence for duplex copying.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a recirculating document handling device 4 is provided for sending the document to be copied to the platen 23 of the copier. This document handling device has a storage tray 431 for documents to be copied, and a document circulation means for sequentially feeding the documents from the storage tray to the platen and returning the documents to the tray. This allows the document to be circulated and recirculated sequentially through the platen 23 for repeated copying (preliminary collating mode). The document is fed at a constant speed across the platen through the optics 22 of the copier, which is stationary in the position shown in solid lines, or alternatively, the document is aligned on the platen by a registration gate 35 before copying. The stationary document is exposed by scanning optics 22 across the document as described above. If the documents are aligned on the platen, the document handling device can be operated in the so-called Stax mode. That is, each document
Multiple copies can be made while being sent once to the platen.

In addition to the storage tray 431, the document handling device 4 includes a document separator / feeder 432, a platen pre-transport device 433 for sending documents to the platen, a platen transport device 434, and a platen post-transport device 435 for returning documents to the storage tray. Have.

The document storage tray 431 is mounted on the platen 23 and tilts downward toward the separator / feeder 432. The storage tray is adjustable to accept different size documents.

Separation and capture of sheets is accomplished by a vacuum belt corrugated feeder (VCF) 432 using floating pressure differential between the bottom sheet and the sheet above it, sheet corrugation and vacuum, as described in US Pat. No. 4,275,877. A parabolic contour pocket is notched in the front edge of the tray 431 and is dished in the manner described. Documents placed in the tray 431 bridge the gap to form a floating pocket. Conveyor belt
436 is exposed through the document tray in the contour pocket. Floating of the document pocket is performed by blowing air from the air knife 437 to the front surface. This jet of air strikes the tray in front of the leading edge of the document stack, causing volumetric expansion of the air in the contour pocket of the tray and causing the leading edge of the document to corrugate and fall into the bottom sheet. An air pocket is created between the second seat and the seat. This helps capture, separate and feed the bottom document.

A set counter mechanism (not shown) is attached to the rear of the tray 431 and has a counter arm that projects into the tray so as to overlie the documents in the tray. The arm is pivotally attached so that when the last document is fed it drops through a slot in the floor of the tray to activate the sensor. The arm is then returned to the top of the document stack.

The pre-platen transfer device 433 and the post-platen transfer device 435 are
As shown, it comprises a pair of nip rolls and internal and external reversing guides.
Comprises a single, white, wide friction drive roll 438 wrapped around an input and output transport roll 439. Documents are conveyed across platen 23 by belt 438.
Three gravity rolls 441 provide a nip between the belt 438 and the platen 23 and maintain driving action across the platen.

A three roll inverter 440 is provided in the document handling device in the post platen transport device 435 to invert the document during circulation to make a double-sided to double-sided or double-sided to single-sided copy. . The post-platen transfer device 435 has a turning device 442. Documents pass through the normal single-sided copy passage and nip roll 44
3 or to the nip between the input roll 444 and the common roll 445 of the three roll inverter 440. The inverter 440 also includes a curved warp chamber 446 dimensioned to receive and warp a 203 mm to 216 mm wide sheet. Due to the curved shape of the warping chamber, the trailing edge of the sheet is carried around the face of the foam roller mounted on the axis of the common roll 445, and the common roll 445 and the output roll 4
Enter the nip between 47. Then the sheet is turned
It is guided onto the 442 and enters the nip roll 443. Common role
445 is a driven type, input roll 444 and output roll 447
Is a floating roll.

The document handling device 4 may be operated in a pre-collection (or set) mode in which the pages of one document are copied at a time in sequential order, or multiple copies of each document sheet may be copied to the next document. It is operated in a post-collision (or stack) mode, which is created before copying sheets.

To make a copy from a two-sided original document, flip the document through each cycle.

The finishing device 5 is described in detail in the applicant's co-pending UK patent application No. 8,226,819 filed Sep. 21, 1982 and has an offset receiving tray or output tray 460, Operated to perform the following functions:
(A) As the set of copies is made, it is edited, aligned and corner stapled, and the stapled set is fed into an offset receiving tray 460; and b) Send the copy directly to the one-sided receiving tray 460,
Editing the sheets in the tray into a set that is offset to each other.

As a modification of (a) above, there are cases where staple binding is omitted.

The finishing device 5 receives the copy sheet from the processing device at the input nips 465a, 465b and sends the sheet directly along the path 461 to the offset receiving tray 460, or
Along the path 463, a side receiving tray 460 via an editing tray 462 where the sheets are aligned and stapled.
Send to. The orientation of the sheet is determined by a deflector 464 located immediately after the finisher input nip rolls 465a, 465b, which is actuated in response to a signal from a processor initiated by an operator. .

The passage 463 includes upper and lower guides 463a and 463b, and further includes two sets of nip rolls 467 and 468 that accelerate the sheet to the editing tray 462. The sheet is corner aligned by gravity and a paddle wheel 471 shown in FIG. 3 against the retractable end alignment gate 469 and the side alignment gate 470 at the front of the copier. Tray 4
The set of sheets edited in 62 is stapled at the corners by a stapler 472. The stapled set of sheets is delivered from tray 462 by retracting gate 469 and lifting the set of sheets toward a pair of driven discharge rolls 473 by a pair of floating rolls 474. The roll 473 is attached to one end of a pivot arm 475, which at its other end carries a gate 469.

Thus, the sheet is fed into the edit tray in the first direction (right to left in FIG. 3) and the trailing edge of the sheet is edge-matching gate 469 in the opposite direction (left to right in FIG. 3). Aligned by being sent to. Passage 463 has paddle wheel 471 and discharge roll 473.
And the tray 462 is properly tilted at an angle of about 40 degrees towards the end alignment gate so that the sheet descends by gravity toward the end gate 470.

The set of sheets consists of three driven following floating floats 477, 478, 47.
9 and outer guides 480, 481 are driven around a large diameter rigid driven sun roll 476 into a side receiving tray 460 located below the editing tray 462. Thus, when the set of sheets is fed to the side-by-side receiving tray 460, the set of sheets is inverted and the direction is reversed. The receiving tray 460 is appropriately tilted downward at an angle of about 40 ° with respect to the editing tray 462.

In set copy mode, the set of documents to be copied
The n-th original image document is placed at the bottom and placed face up on the document handling tray 431. Therefore, the pages of the document are copied in reverse order. Therefore, the copy sheets are sent to the editing tray of the finishing device in the order of n to 1. In single-sided copying, the sheet is received face up on the output section.
Thus, the assembled set of sheets are in page number order and are passed through the copier with the long edge first, so that the top of the page is on the front side of the copier. Therefore, the top left-hand corner of the set of sheets is placed in the alignment corner and stapled. Therefore, the set of sheets stapled in the edit tray 462 is received face down in the receiving tray 460, and the stapled corner is on the upper front surface of the tray.

Receiving tray 46 for sheets that do not require staple binding
Sent directly to 0. That is, when staple binding is not required, the sheet passes or is guided along the tray 462, engages with the roller 476, and is fed into the tray 460 by the driven foam rolls 478 and 479. Tray 460 is laterally offset between the sets of sheets to provide visual and mechanical separation between the sets of sheets.

In addition to making a single-sided copy from a single-sided original, you can also make a double-sided copy from a single-sided or double-sided original using the copier shown in FIG. 3, or make a single-sided copy from a double-sided original. You can also In all cases, the original to be copied is placed face-up in the document tray of the recycling document handler, page 1 bottom of the stack. The original image is copied in the order of n to 1, and the copy formed on the copy sheet sent from either the main tray or the auxiliary tray (only in the case of single-sided copying) is face-up to the output section of the processing device. Sent, thus forming the stack with page n at the bottom of the stack. When making a single-sided copy from a double-sided original, the original is passed through an inverter after each exposure. As you can see from Figure 38,
If the duplex original is placed face up in the document tray, the even side will be the bottom side of the original and thus the odd side will be face down on the platen during the first cycle. To copy the even side before the odd side so that the copy is in the correct page order at the exit of the processor, the original image is circulated through the inverter in a non-copying cycle before the first copying cycle. . After the final copying cycle, non-copying cycle is performed again and the original images are rearranged in the original page order. The set counter is shown in FIG. 38 at reference numeral 450.

When making a double-sided copy from a single-sided original image, it is necessary to count the number of original images before starting copying. this is,
This is because the original image is copied in the reverse serial number order (from n to 1), and the last page is placed on the front surface of the one-sided copy sheet according to whether the number of original images is odd or even. This is because the back side of the double-sided copy sheet must be covered. Counting the number of original documents is done by dropping the original document through the document handler in a non-copy cycle, and the set counter indicates when all documents have been fed.

A method of making a two-sided copy by copying an odd number of one-sided original document will be described below with reference to FIGS. 39 to 41. For convenience of illustration, it is assumed that there are five original document sheets. During the first copy cycle as shown in FIG. 39, only the even-numbered original images are copied and sent to the buffer tray 43.

If more than one set is required, then the entire original is copied in the next cycle, as shown in FIG. The last sheet (fifth sheet) is copied onto the non-copy sheet from the main tray and immediately sent to the output tray. The sheets are received face up in the tray. The fourth page is also copied onto the non-copy sheet from the main tray and sent to the buffer tray. The third page is copied to the other side of the single-sided copy copy of the fourth page sent to the buffer tray during the previous cycle, and this double-sided copy is output with the upper third page side facing up. Send to department. The second page is copied onto the uncopied sheet from the main tray and sent to the buffer tray, and the first page of the upper second page single-sided copy copy received in the buffer tray during the previous cycle. Copies are made on the other side and sent to the output section with the upper first page side facing up. The above cycle is repeated a number of times equal to the required number of sets minus one.

To complete the final output set during the final cycle, only odd pages are copied, as shown in FIG. That is, the fifth page is copied onto an uncopied sheet and immediately sent to the output tray. The third page is copied to the other side of the single-sided copy copy of the fourth page sent to the buffer tray in the previous cycle, and similarly page 1 is the second page made in the previous cycle. To the other side of the one-sided copy of the above and send both of these two-sided copies to the output tray.

If only one set of sheets is needed, only the first and last cycles above are needed.

If the number of original documents is even, all copies are made as double-sided copies. Do not make a one-sided copy of the last page as in an odd set of sheets.

In order to make a double-sided copy from a double-sided original image, first the original image is removed through a non-copying reversal cycle through a reverser, and as shown in FIG. Copies on an uncopied sheet from the tray and sends it to the buffer tray. During this cycle, the original document is reversed again, and during the second cycle, as shown in FIG. 43, the odd page is copied onto the uncopied side of the even-sided one-sided copy copy sent from the buffer tray. , Make a double-sided copy made in this way with the odd page side facing up,
Then, the pages are sent in order from the top to the bottom of the stack in the order of page numbers, and sent to the output section of the processing device. Subsequent sets of sheets are
It is created by repeating these two cycles for each set. After the final cycle, the document is returned to the document tray without passing through the flipper. As a result, the operator can take out the documents in the correct order of the page numbers.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to its embodiments, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims.

For example, the scanning device or optics device 22 may scan from left to right in FIGS. 1-3, which causes the device to move to a scan end position rather than a scan start position for constant velocity transport. Be stationed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing a double-sided copying machine to which the present invention is applied and its operating members, and FIG. 2 is similar to that shown in FIG. 1 and comprises a semi-automatic document handling device and a sorter. FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the copier in use, and FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of a copier similar to that shown in FIG. 1 and equipped with an automatic recirculation type document handling device and a copy finishing device. ,
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the paper tray assembly of the copying machine, with some parts omitted for simplification, FIG. 5 is a front view of the lifting assembly for the paper tray in the lowered position, and FIG. Fig. 7 is a front view similar to Fig. 5 showing the lifting assembly in a position, Fig. 7
FIG. 8 is a partial front view of the paper tray assembly showing the mounting of the tray unit, FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the main paper tray cut away, and FIG. FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a deceleration roll type sheet feeder for feeding, FIG. 10 is a partial side view showing the operation of the sheet feeder,
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the deceleration roll assembly of the sheet feeder of FIG. 9, FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the upper paper tray unit when the auxiliary tray is lowered, and FIG. 13 is an auxiliary tray. 12 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 12 in which the upper paper tray unit is omitted and FIG. 14 is a partial perspective view of the upper tray unit when the auxiliary tray is omitted and the upper tray unit is viewed from another angle, and FIG. FIG. 16 is a schematic side view of the upper tray unit when in the lowered position, FIG. 16 is a schematic side view of the upper tray unit when the auxiliary tray is in the raised position, and FIGS. 17 and 18 are adjustable rear stops for the buffer tray. 2 of the device
Side view showing the state in three different positions, respectively
FIG. 19 is a partially exploded perspective view of the sheet feeder of the upper tray unit seen from above, and FIGS. 20 and 21 are schematic side views of the sheet feeder of FIG. 19 showing different stages of sheet feeding from the auxiliary tray. FIG. 22 is a side view similar to FIGS. 20 and 21 showing sheet feeding in a buffer tray,
FIG. 23 is a schematic side view of a pre-transfer sheet passage from a sheet feeder to a photoconductor showing a mechanism for aligning sheets at an output end of a conveying device, and FIG. 24 is a partial perspective view of the sheet passage shown in FIG. Fig. 25, Fig. 25 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the operation of the members of the alignment mechanism, Fig. 26 is a perspective view showing the details of the alignment mechanism, and Fig. 27 is for facilitating the removal of jammed sheets. FIG. 28 is a perspective view of the pre-transfer sheet transporting device to the photoconductor, showing a mechanism for separating the driving nip of the transporting device, as seen from the rear side; FIG. 28 is a perspective view showing the device of FIG. 27 in detail;
The figure shows a side view of the pre-transfer sheet path to the photoreceptor showing the state when the transport nip is closed, and FIG. 30 is a side view similar to FIG. 29 showing the state when the transport nip is separated,
FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing how to adjust the back stop of the double-sided feeder buffer tray, FIG. 32 is a schematic side view of the post-transfer paper passage and the return paper passage, and FIG. 33 is arranged in the sheet return passage. A perspective view of the sheet curl removing mechanism,
FIG. 34 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the sheet curl removing device shown in FIG. 33, FIG. 35 is a perspective view showing a partial removal of the sheet return passage, and FIG. 36 is a sheet return showing the deviation of the sheet being conveyed to the buffer tray. FIG. 37 is a partial plan view of the passage, FIG. 37 is a partial perspective view of a feeding roll for inserting sheets into the buffer tray, and FIG. 38 is one stage in the operation of the recirculation type document handling apparatus of the embodiment of FIG. 39 to 41 are schematic diagrams showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 when making a double-sided copy from a single-sided original image, and FIGS. 42 and 43 are double-sided duplicate copies from the double-sided original image. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the device of FIG. 3 when making 11 ... Photosensitive drum, 19 ... Conveyor belt device, 41 ... Main tray, 42 ... Auxiliary tray, 43 ... Double-sided copy buffer tray, 45
… Common bottom sheet feeder, 46… Sheet separator / feeder, 55… Sheet return passage, 81,82… Curved guide section, 1
10 ... Lifting mechanism, 182 ... Rear stop, 184 ... Rear stop adjusting mechanism.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --- Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-53-127732 (JP, A) JP-A-58-35553 (JP, A) JP-A-56-22447 (JP, A) JP-A-56- 40843 (JP, A) JP-A-56-95264 (JP, A) JP-A-56-68762 (JP, A)

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. An uncopied sheet is fed from a copy sheet tray to a photoconductor to receive a first image on one side, and the one-sided copy sheet is sent to a two-sided copying buffer tray for one-sided copying. In a copier configured such that the copy sheet is re-fed from the buffer tray to the photoreceptor to receive the second image on the other side, the buffer tray being arranged below the photoreceptor. When the one-sided copy sheet is fed from the photoconductor to the buffer tray, the one-sided copy sheet is fed along a double-folding path between them, and the sheet is inverted twice in the traveling direction thereof. The copy sheet is inserted into the buffer tray in the same direction as it exits the photoreceptor, with the leading edge first, and the single-sided copy sheet is the buffer sheet. Exiting the same side as it entered the tray, the single-sided copy sheet is fed along a single turnaround path between them as it is re-fed from the buffer tray to the photoreceptor. A copying machine, wherein the traveling direction is reversed and the trailing edge is fed again to the photoconductor. 2. The copy sheet tray is located below the photoreceptor and the path for sheets from the copy sheet tray and double sided copy buffer tray includes a common portion adjacent the photoreceptor. Range first
Copier described in item. 3. A copying machine according to claim 2, wherein the copy sheet tray is arranged below the double-sided copy buffer tray. 4. A copy according to claim 1, 2 or 3 including automatic means for laterally aligning a sheet with respect to said photoreceptor in said double sided copy buffer tray. Machine. 5. A copier as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, in which the buffer tray has adjustable end stops for receiving different sheet sizes. 6. A copying machine according to claim 1, further comprising sheet bending removing means in a double-sided copying return passage between the photoconductor and the buffer tray. . 7. The buffer tray is arranged with respect to the bi-folding path such that single sided copy sheets are fed to the buffer tray and are gravity stacked on the sheet receiving surface of the buffer tray. The copying machine according to any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. The buffer tray correspondingly has a sheet feeder for re-feeding the copy sheet from the buffer tray along one-fold return passage, and the two-fold return passage includes a single-sided copy sheet. 7. A means for feeding onto the tray surface of the buffer tray, wherein the means for stacking the sheet feeder on the surface of the tray in the buffer tray by the action of gravity is included in the buffer tray. The copier according to any one of items. 9. A photoconductor, a copy sheet tray, a double-sided copying buffer tray, a sheet feeder linked to both trays for feeding sheets from both trays toward the photoconductor, and one of the photoconductors. Sheet return means for sending a single-sided copy sheet that has received the image on one side to the double-sided copy buffer tray and re-feeding it to the photoreceptor to receive a second image on the other side. In the copying machine, the copy sheet tray and the double-sided copy buffer tray are arranged below the photoconductor so that one is above the other, and the sheet path from the copy sheet tray to the photoconductor is The unfolded sheet is folded back and inverted once in the traveling direction between the copy sheet tray and the photoconductor. The returning means conveys the single-sided copy sheet from the photoreceptor to the buffer tray along the double-folded return path, and the single-sided copy sheet is inverted twice in the traveling direction so that the sheet exits from the photoreceptor. Enter the buffer tray in the same direction, front edge first, the single-sided copy sheet exits from the same side that entered the buffer tray, and the sheet path from the buffer tray to the photoreceptor is folded back. The single-sided copy sheet is reversed once in the traveling direction between the buffer tray and the photoconductor, and is re-fed to the photoconductor with the trailing edge first, and is supplied from the copy sheet tray. The uncopied sheets and the single-sided copy sheets supplied from the buffer trays are printed on both the trays and A copier characterized by being supplied to the optical body from the same direction. 10. The copier of claim 9 wherein the path for sheets from the copy sheet tray and the duplex copy buffer tray includes a common portion adjacent the photoreceptor. 11. A second copy sheet tray is included, wherein the second copy sheet tray and the double-sided copy buffer tray have a common sheet feeder, and both trays have one of them at a time. Is relatively movable to operatively interface with the sheet feeder, and further,
Means for selecting sheet feed from one of the two copy sheet trays described above and first sheet feed during duplex copying.
Means for feeding both copy sheet trays and controlling said trays to operatively associate said buffer trays with said common sheet feeder. Copier described in item. 12. A second copy sheet tray having a lowered operating position in which the tray is in the duplex copy buffer tray and operatively associated with a sheet feeder, the tray being spaced above the duplex copy buffer tray. And the buffer tray is mounted for movement between an inoperative position operatively associated with the sheet feeder and the second copy sheet tray is in its raised inoperative position during copying. A copying machine according to claim 11. 13. A first copy sheet tray is movable between an operative position in which it engages the feeder and a non-actuating position in which it disengages from the feeder and is in its operative position during duplex copying. A copying machine according to claim 11 or 12. 14. A first copy sheet tray is movable between an operative position in which it engages with its feeder and a non-actuating position in which it disengages from its feeder, said first copy sheet tray and 13. The copier of claim 12, wherein engagement of each of the second copy sheet trays with its feeder is prohibited unless the other of the two trays is disengaged from that feeder. 15. The buffer tray is arranged such that, with respect to the bi-folding path, a single-sided copy sheet is inserted into the buffer tray with its front edge first, the buffer tray corresponding thereto. A sheet feeder is provided, and the copy sheet is fed from the buffer tray to the photoconductor along the second copy sheet passage with the trailing edge first, and is inverted once during the feeding. 10. The one-sided copy sheets are dropped on the tray surface of the buffer tray by the action of gravity and are stacked in the buffer tray with respect to the feeder on the tray surface. Copier according to paragraph 14.